DEVASTATED Louise Speed wept after recalling how she rowed with her husband Gary, the late Wales manager, hours before she discovered him dead.

The Mancot-born icon, who was 42, was found hanged at the couple’s Huntington Hall home near Chester in the early hours of Sunday, November 27.

But Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said there was not enough evidence to rule the former Hawarden High School pupil had committed suicide.

The inquest at Warrington Town Hall on Monday heard the couple – who married at St Deiniol’s Church in Hawarden in 1996 – had argued about ‘something and nothing’ after arriving home from a dinner party with three other couples shortly before 1am.

Mrs Speed said she had driven a short distance away ‘to clear my mind’, but returned home about half an hour later to find the house locked. Her husband – who captained his country 44 times – would not answer his mobile phone.

After falling asleep in the car Mrs Speed, 41, tried to get into the house again at about 7am – and saw her husband hanging in the garage.

She immediately called 999 and was told to cut her husband’s body down.

Paramedics arrived and tried in vain to resuscitate the former Leeds, Everton and Newcastle midfielder, administering CPR for 20 minutes but getting no response.

Mrs Speed revealed her husband of 15 years had made a comment during a text message exchange four days before his death about taking his own life.

Mrs Speed admitted the childhood sweethearts’ marriage had been going through ‘ups and downs’ because her husband’s job meant he had to spend a lot of time away.

“He had to travel away from home a lot and this did put a strain on the relationship,” she said.

“Like all couples do we were going through ups and downs and we were working through it.”

In a statement read out to the court, former England captain Alan Shearer – a close friend of Speed’s since their time as team-mates at Newcastle – said he was aware the couple were having problems.

“Gary said there were one or two issues between him and Louise, but I said that was normal in a relationship of that length of time,” said Shearer.

“He told me he was going to give it a go and stick in there.”

On hearing of his friend’s death, Shearer added: “I didn’t believe it. I was shocked. It didn’t – and still doesn’t – make sense.”